The Parthenon

By Mary Beard

Book Overview

Oscar Wilde compared it to a white goddess, Evelyn Waugh to Stilton cheese. In observers from Lord Byron to Sigmund Freud to Virginia Woolf it met with astonishment, rapture, poetry, even tears--and, always, recognition. Twenty-five hundred years after it first rose above Athens, the Parthenon remains one of the wonders of the world, its beginnings and strange turns of fortune over millennia a perpetual source of curiosity, controversy, and intrigue. At once an entrancing cultural history and a congenial guide for tourists, armchair travelers, and amateur archaeologists alike, this book conducts readers through the storied past and towering presence of the most famous building in the world. Who built the Parthenon, and for what purpose? How are we to understand its sculpture? Why is it such a compelling monument? The classicist and historian Mary Beard takes us back to the fifth century B.C. to consider the Parthenon in its original guise--as the flagship temple of imperial Athens, housing an enormous gold and ivory statue of the city's patron goddess attended by an enigmatic assembly of sculptures. Just as fascinating is the monument's far longer life as cathedral church of Our Lady of Athens, as "the finest mosque in the world," and, finally, as an inspirational ruin and icon. Beard also takes a cool look at the bitter arguments that continue to surround the "Elgin Marbles," the sculptures from the Parthenon now in the British Museum. Her book constitutes the ultimate tour of the marvelous history and present state of this glory of the Acropolis, and of the world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067401085X
• ISBN13: 9780674010857
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.6" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

well written book (follows elements of style by strunk white)

Simply commenting on the writing style: very well done. Follows Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Factual too. Every point is rebutted by a counter point, giving a nuianced view. I don't usually give a book five stars (see my other reviews) but this one merits it.

great book

A spendid book that can be easily read in an afternoon. Covers the topic fully and moves along as it does.

A book for the ages

This is an exhaustive, fabulous treatise on one of the most venerable monuments to classical history the world has ever known. Beard takes us through the entire history of the Parthenon. She details for us its probable early use as a temple to Athena (as well as some other theories) as well as its less known utility as a Christian church and Mosque in later ages. Along the way, Beard offers us statements concerning the Parthenon from various historical and modern personages. Some are profound, some are not. Some simply advertise their ignorance (such as the not-so-venerable Shaquille O'Neal). From the vantage points of different epochs we are able to discern how the Parthenon has been seen down through the ages. Of course, no work on the Parthenon would be complete without examining the highly(!) controversial exploits of one Lord Elgin. As hoped, Beard delivers in giving a thorough description of all the forces at play in both England & Greece. She does not take a position on the issue, so her discussion of this sensitive topic is not apt to offend anyone. Then again, since she refrains from taking a position, perhaps that in itself WILL offend some people? I don't know. There is also a background section on the disastrous explosion of 1687. It was caused by the Ottoman Empire using (mis-using!) the Parthenon as an arsenal. Not suprisingly, this made it a target for the Venetians and.....you can guess the rest. What is less known is that 300 people perished when the Parthenon exploded. That's an unfortunate detail that is many times overlooked in history classes. As usual, Beard does an excellent job of giving the whole story of what took place. If you possess an interest in the Parthenon and / or ancient Greece in general, this book is a can't miss. For anyone who wishes to tour Greece (or the British museum in London), this book is highly recommended as well. Even if you only have a passing interest in history per-se, this book will give you an avenue to enjoy the Parthenon & all of its frieze and sculptoral splendor.

A short, excellent history of the famous temple!

Beard's text is an excellent bio of Ancient Greece's most famous temple. Within the 198 pages, Beard traces the establishment of the temple (in Pericle's 'golden era') to its subsequent trials brought on by foreign occupation (Turkish, Venetian) and the mishandling of the ruins by Lord Elgin. This is primarily a travel book to be taken with one to the actual site. It serves as a nice introduction (with map) to the Parthenon and its varied voyage through time.

The History of the Most Famous Building

It is the most famous building in Western history. Yet, in _The Parthenon_ (Harvard University Press), Mary Beard reminds us that there are great voids of mystery about it, that we don't know what large portions of it looked like when it was built, and that much of what we see when we look at the ruin now is a controversial restoration. Beard's serious, academic, but witty monograph makes us look at the ruin again, and realize the role it has played in imagination and in objective Western history. Not only is the Parthenon an amazing and influential building, but it has a few thousand years of history and controversy (starting from before it was built). Beard gives us all the details in a lively account.Beard, a classicist, reminds us that we have to do a lot of guesswork about the Athenian government of the fifth century BCE, even though it looms large in our imagined history of democracy. There were rumors of financial and sexual scandal connected to the project, which was attacked as a colossal waste of money and "dressing up Athens like a whore." The temple was not for worship such as occurs in our churches and mosques (both of which, in time, the Parthenon became). It was a strongbox, a place to keep not only the valuable statue secure, but also plenty of other treasures. The friezes were attacked by Christians when it was turned into a church, and had milder defacement from the Turks when it afterward became a mosque. The temple was more or less intact, though, until 1687, when Christians blew up the gunpowder the Turks were storing there. The ruin we see now on the Acropolis is not the ruin that was left. We now see columns running between the pedimented ends of the building, but this is a reconstruction from the 1920s. To put it mildly, this restoration did not meet the current standards for historic preservation, although it was heartily approved at the time. It is not an accurate reconstruction but "a plausible fiction" made of materials that were to hand, and it inexcusably injured the ancient blocks. Current reconstruction will position them as well as current research methods can direct.Of course the history of the Lord Elgin and his theft or rescue of the sculptures is recounted here in very fair detail. What happened to them in the twentieth century, however, shows how large a role they play in the world's affections and interest. The rich art dealer Joseph Duveen provided the new accommodation for the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. He somehow had access to the sculptures being prepared for their new accommodation, and in 1938, the director of the museum was horrified to find that copper tools and carborundum were being used to clean the figures at Duveen's direction. Beard reports that "... heads did, discretely, roll, and 'remedial measures' (the phrase alone makes you shudder) were taken on the marbles." There was a flurry of press criticism at the time, but a scholar turned the story up only a few years